Gold: Canada. Chan will be heavily favored to for the men, Virtue and Moir will probably get first in dance and no worse than second, Duhamel and Radford are headed in the right direction.

Silver Japan: Japan's got a pairs team! They also have two strong men and two strong ladies (in fact, they have a choice of strong men and ladies).

Bronze: Russia

Fourth: USA. We got diddly, but we might stay ahead of Italy and France.

Except that 2 of our diddlys could be the reason why Virtue and Moir place second.
And another diddly was the first U.S. man to win the senior Grand Prix Final.
We just need a diddly to replace Alissa.

Last time the results were USA, Canada, Japan, France, Russia, China. Russia's ladies are now better, and everything else seems about the same, so they should do better. I don't see Canada winning this. Since the WTT is two ladies, two men, one dance team and one pair - countries whose strength (and depth) is in singles have the edge. Namely, Japan, especially now that they have a good pair.

If P/B go, I think Team France might do better than expected. If Nathalie needs time off to let her injury heal, not so much. Their FB update from this morning seems to suggest that they are in, FWIW.

Are points cumulative or only for placements in this event? I think it will be for placements at the Olympics. Not sure about this one.

Originally Posted by enlight78

Placements is what counts.

Yes, for 2012 Tokyo, placements determine the winner. (If necessary, points will be used as tiebreakers.) Official ISU language:

"To determine the final result of the ISU World Team Trophy the following rule will be used:

- For each category points will be awarded assigning 12 points to the first placed Single Skater/Pair Skating, Ice Dance couple and decreasing in descending order by one point, i.e. 12, 11, 10, 9, etc. The last placed participant in the Single categories (if all Skaters have completed the event) will receive 1 point and similarly the last places in the Pair Skating and Ice Dance categories will receive 7 points.
- The team having earned the highest number of aggregate points is the winner; the team having earned the second highest number of aggregate points is ranked second and so on.
- When forming the final result, in case of a tie between teams, the tie breaking procedure will be used taking into consideration the 2 best places of the concerned teams in different categories. The highest total points from the 2 best places will prevail and the respective placements recorded accordingly.
-If ties persist, the 3 best places in different categories will be considered and the highest total points from the 3 best places will prevail and the respective placements recorded accordingly."

(Whether the ISU already has spelled out the same rules for Sochi is a separate question -- for which I don't have an answer.)

ETA:
Sorry, Mathman, I was in the middle of writing out my reply when you posted yours. Didn't mean to be redundant.

The most interesting thing about the US will be who they pick to send.

Other than US, Russia, Japan & Canada, which other 2 teams are going? Italy and China and France are all contenders. AFAIR, teams qualified with points from everything under the sun, so I'm going to wait to see rather than try to figure it out.

The most interesting about the teams will be whom they pick to send.

I don't know whether Meryl & Charlie will be skating the team championship. Charlie said in an interview, that it was sad to skate Der Fledermaus for the last time; did he forget, or are they not going?

Skater's in the top 10 at Worlds really can't refuse to go because of ISU rules without a medical reason, I believe?

So I guess that is D&W in dance for US & Denney & Coughlin and Ashley Wagner & Jeremy Abbott. As to the second 2, it should be either Zhang or Gold, and Ross Miner, based on their respective 4CC's or Jr Worlds results.

Because Makarova & Leonova finished top 10, I don't know whether the Russians are forced to send them. I also don't know whether Tukt is eligible, as she was for the GP, but not Worlds.

Are there any age requirements? If not, I'd like Russia to try their "juniors". Like Liza, Bush...in order to gain experience. Anyway Canada/Japan's going to be the 1st.

WTT rules say:
"Age must be within the limits specified in ISU Rule 108, paragraph 2.b)".

And AFAIK (but someone please correct me if I'm wrong), Rule 108, paragraph 2.b), is:
"in International Senior Competitions only Skaters may compete who have reached at least the age of fourteen (14) before July 1st preceding the competition".

Originally Posted by dorispulaski

Other than US, Russia, Japan & Canada, which other 2 teams are going? Italy and China and France are all contenders. AFAIR, teams qualified with points from everything under the sun, so I'm going to wait to see rather than try to figure it out. ....

I don't know whether Meryl & Charlie will be skating the team championship. Charlie said in an interview, that it was sad to skate Der Fledermaus for the last time; did he forget, or are they not going?
Skater's in the top 10 at Worlds really can't refuse to go because of ISU rules without a medical reason, I believe?
So I guess that is D&W in dance ...

- Italy and France qualified; China did not. I had posted the list in the other WTT thread a few days ago, and enlight78 also has it in the OP for this thread.
Per ISU website, "The six teams are Japan (7891 points), Canada (6943 points), Russia (6807 points), USA (6399 points), Italy (5412 points) and France (5214 points)."

- Thursday, April 5, is the deadline for countries to tell the ISU which skaters they are sending ... so we'll have lots more to discuss soon!

- Doris: good question whether Charlie forgot or whether there is any possibility that D/W are not going?!? V/M will be competing for Canada (at least according to media reports after their gold in Nice).

- And also among the WTT rules is this:
" .... in case that one or more of the best ranked Skaters/Couples (in the ISU World Standings valid after the ISU World Figure Skating Championships 2012) of a Qualified ISU Member elects not to participate, the ISU reserves the right to exclude such team from the competition and to invite instead the Member/s whose team is ranked next in the ISU World Team Trophy qualification list."